HAVE A BALL, PASS IT ON

Time to pass the Rock on.

In 2002, my boss Bryan gave me a gift; one that had originally been given to him a few years earlier.

It was a basketball signed by the entire 1997-98 University of Rhode Island men's basketball team, arguably the best team in school history. Led by the electrifying backcourt of Cuttino Mobley and Tyson Wheeler, those Rams made it to the Elite Eight and were mere minutes away from the Final Four before it ended with a crushing loss to Stanford (an institution I hate to this day. Arthur Lee, may you suffer severe, uncontrollable gas every night from 10:40 until 10:47, you armpit of a man).

The gift from Bryan - who very well may have been just trying to clear shelf space in his office - meant a great deal to me. Bryan and I first met at URI, where he worked in the Sports Information office while I was a student reporter for the Good 5-Cent Cigar. A few years later, Bryan gave me my first professional job as a reporter with Patriots Football Weekly, the official newspaper of the New England Patriots.

As a Rhody hoops fan, I appreciated the ball. As a friend, it meant even more that Bryan thought to pass it along.

This weekend, after keeping it for eight years, I too will pass it along. The ball will go to another member of Rhody Nation, Destiny, who is a teacher in Texas.

Her classroom is the University of Rhode Island room at her school (each class is named for the alma mater of the teacher). She and I have never actually met in person, but we share a love for our Rams. We've gotten to know each other a bit through the somewhat random and unpredictable world of social media, and I know she incorporates URI into the atmosphere of her classroom whenever she can.

As a former student-athlete at URI who still follows the University closely, I know Destiny will truly appreciate the ball, much like I did. She'll be able to display it in her classroom if she chooses, and share a piece of her old school with her students.   

There's a part of me that will miss that ball, a lot. Every time I read the names of the guys on that team, guys I saw and talked to fairly regularly on campus, it made me think of that magical run they took us on.

It always stirs of memories. And memories are meant to be passed on.